Two Christmases ago, my wife bought me a wonderful little book. It is page after page of possibility. It is called 642 Things to Draw, and really, its self-explanatory. After two years, I've drawn far too few of these things. I could have finished the book with a simple daily drawing by now. Guilting aside, the book has reminded me that (a) I like drawing and (b) I'm alright at it.
My first drawing from the book's prompts, a rolling pin, is here.

It wasn't long after I got that book that I got an iPad mini. And it wasn't long after that I downloaded the app Paper by 53. It's a very simple, incredibly intuitive program for drawing. Not a lot of options, just a few tools that work great and get out of the way.

I began using Paper to illustrate blog posts because it would take me about as long as finding or designing an image would. Here is the first drawing I did with Paper for this blog.

When it came time to write letters for the Dear Edmonton blog, it just made sense to me to illustrate those letters and bring a little something unique, and something shareable on social media, to each letter. So far, I've done 12 of these drawings. I hope you enjoy the gallery below.

[gallery ids="727,728,729,730,731,732,733,734,735,736,737,738"]

My next project is an ambitious one, inspired by a far more ambitious project, All the Buildings in New York, where an illustrator has set out to draw every single building in New York. It's a fascinating, beautiful obsession.

My project, starting next week, is called Avenue Buildings. I'm drawing the buildings of Alberta Avenue on a tumblr blog. I'm going to start at 97 street and move my way down 118th Avenue towards Rexall Place. Or maybe I'll jump around. I won't draw every day, but I'll try for a couple of times a week. I'll do this until it stops being fun, because this project is all about fun for me.